/^5/^ 
.^?!^ 



\ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 498 971 5 



P 316 
.C75 
^opy 1 



TEUSONAL VINDICATION. 



SPEECH 



OB' 



HON. S. B. CONOYEE, 



AT 



A Mass Meeting of Citizens, held in the Capitol /Square, in the City of Talla- 
Jiassee, Florida, on Saturday, Novemher 8, 1873. 



I'^elloAv-Citizeu^i t 

I thank you for the kindness ■with which you 
have received me, and accept your cordial greet- 
ing as evidence that you at least have not as yet 
pronounced an Unfavorable judgment on one 
whose brief career, in what is to him an almost 
untried position, has wrought little harm, if it 
has thus far accomplished no good. 

I am thankful for the opportunity now pre- 
sented of addressing you. It has been my good 
fortune, during a residence here of several years, 
to enjoy the acquaintance of many now present, 
whose friendship and confidence, if not mine 
already, I covet, and shall aidentlj" strive to 
merit. 

It is not my purpose on this occasion to detain 
you long or to attempt an elaborate speech. — 
What I shall have to say will relate chiefly to my 
own vindication from personal attacks as morti- 
fying to myself as they were unexpected to my 
friends. When elected to the high position which 
it pleased a majority of both parties in the Legis- 
lature to confer upon me, I was not vain enough 
to suppose that, pursue what course I might, I 
should escape criticism if not censure. An avowed 
Republican and elected with full knowledge, by 
every one who voted for me, of my political affilia- 
tions and inclinations, I expected that my con- 
duct would be closely watched, especially by 
those of opposite political faith ; but I am proud 
to say, and I take this opportunity to avow it, 
that so far at least I have received little elsethau 



kind forbearance from those from whom I sup- 
posed I had the most to dread. No, fellow-citi- 
zens, it is not from political opponents that at- 
tacks have come. They at least have been wil- 
ling to give me a fair trial, and if I have nothing 
else to offer them in return, I tender them my 
poor thanks and most profound gratitude. The 
assaults of which I have just cause to complain 
have come from quite a different source. They 
have come from my own household — from pro- 
fessed Republicans — from those who assume to 
be sentinels on the ramparts of the party, aind as- 
pire to be the leaders and instructors of its masseSi 
These have pursued me with a bitterness without 
a parallel. Crimes of the most damaging charac- 
ter have been ascribed to me, and they lacked 
but the ingredient of truth to have accomplished 
my destruction. While I have been endeavoring 
in a feeble but earnest way to do my duty at the 
seat of government, and as a member of a com- 
mittee charged with a most important work, in 
which Florida has a great interest, seeking to 
collect such information as would enable me fitly 
to represent my State, enemies at home have 
labored with a zeal worthy of a better cause to 
block up my path and render me impotent for 
good. Who these enemies are, is known to those 
present. In w hat manner they have assailed me 
ig also known ; but xohy I have been pursued with 
the most unsparing abuse and villification is not 
so generally understood. The fact that my ac- 
counts as Treasurer had not been squared witli 



r -^ \(a 



the State was seized upou as a pretext to charge 
me with embezzlement and dishonesty. I was 
held up as a swindler and a thief ; my party fealty 
questioned and denied, and every possible effort 
made to prejudice the public mind to my injury, 
and especially to weaken and destroy any influ- 
ence I might be supposed to possess at Washing- 
ton. I say the fact of my accounts not being 
closed was made the pretext for this ungenerous, 
unjust and cowardlj'^ warfare. The real motive 
of the attack was kept hidden. Shall I tell you 
what that motive was ? It was to destroy me po- 
litically. This was the object, end and aim. And 
why ? Not because I was personally of any par- 
ticular importance, but because, from the position 
in which I was placed, I was supposed to be an 
obstacle in the way of the political and personal 
schemes of a clique of restless, ambitious and 
unscrupulous demagogues, whose power for mis- 
chief and evil in the Republican party was sup- 
posed to have been destroyed by my election to 
the Senate. This faction found that I could not 
be dragooned and used, and tliey determined to 
" kill me off;" but they will find, if they have 
not already made the discovery, that the under- 
taking is more than they are equal to. The job 
is too big to be " bossed" by them or such as 
them. They will learn that the Republican par- 
ty has ceased to be " their property," never more 
to be subjected to their domination and control. 
Four years under their leadership were years of 
turmoil and strife. To question the wisdom of 
their course was to provoke their animosity — to 
oppose them, inspired their deepest resentment. 
Offices of respectability and profit, both Federal 
and State, were considered their's bj' divine right ; 
the only passports to their favor were adulation 
and subserviency. The rallying ciy of party in 
their lips was only a cloak to conceal their inor- 
dinate greed and restless ambition. Pretending 
a zealous regard for the rights of the colored peo- 
ple, they elevated themselves to power on their 
shoulders, and straightway forgot the brawny 
arms that had lifted them into position, oi; amused 
and flattered them with crumbs and sops. Ever 
boasting their longing desire to see Florida a 
prosperous State and her people united and hap- 
py, they were foremost in sowing the seeds of 
distrust between races, and took a peculiar pleas- 
ure in representing life and property as unsafe 
by magnifying every outbreak against law as 
proof that the spirit of rebellion was as yet un- 
subdued. Bold, tmscrupnlous and cunning, aiTO- 



gating to themselves the " brains of the party," 
they are only at home when reveling in the 
frauds of a " Yellow Bluff," plotting schemes of 
impeachment, or defaming the character of those 
who defy their hatred and scorn their alliance. 

This little faction, fellow-citizens, whose num- 
bers are insignificant, will never be satisfied until 
every Republican who refuses to " crook the preg- 
nant hinges of the knee" before their assumption 
and arrogance, is, like myself, " killed ofl"."— 
They are even now laying the wires and plan- 
ning schemes for political control, and rathei- 
than fail they would ally themselves with any 
and every body, or any political party, who will 
follow their lead and pander to their selfishness. 

That they have not succeeded in destroying 
me is not their fault. With free access to the 
columns of a venal newspaper, claiming to be 
Republican, their utmost endeavors to inflict in- 
jurj^ have recoiled upon themselves. If there is 
any one trait in American character more marked 
than another, it is a love of fair play, and my 
worst enemy nuist admit that this has been de- 
nied to me. No explanation has satisfied my 
traducers; it was no part of the conspiracy that 
I should have a fair hearing and be fairly judged. 
The consideration accorded to the meanest crimi- 
nal was withheld from me. I was to be accused, 
tried and declared guilty without the opportunity 
of being heard, and the instrument selected for 
" working up the case" was of all men best fitted 
for the discreditable undertaking. The Republi- 
can editor of the Florida Union^ who knows him 
well, describes him thus : " The sour malignan- 
" cy, the bilious acidity, the gratuitous personality 
" of one too cynical to cultivate the decent cour- 
" tesies of common life and too malicious to avoid 
" a single opportunity to vent his spleen, are all 
" too characteristic to allow much doubt" that 
the traders in traduction knew their man. 

To this picture of the tool of an infamous com- 
bination, I will only add that his antecedents 
equally with his natural disposition, qualified 
him all the better for doing the bidding of his 
employers. Originally a bitter reviler of the Re- 
publican party, his hatred of its leaders and its 
measures led him to take the stump as a brawling 
secessionist. " Longing to follow to the field some 
warlike lord," and fancying that his mighty 
sword would turn the scale against the armies 
of the Union, we next find him a subaltern offi- 
cer in a rebel regiment ; but the smoke of battle 
not agreeing M-ith his sensitive nerves, and per- 



^'ceiving safety and perhaps snuffing plunJev and 
'^provender in another field, lie thought it uo re- 
"^^ flection upon his patriotism if he deserted his flag, 
^leaving the comrades whom his eloquence and 
example had duped to bear the shock of battle 
uncheered by his presence and uuaided by his 
arm. And this man, fellow-citizens, who fled 
his flag to become a " camp bummer," thus in- 
spiring in the same breath admiration for the 
treason but contempt for the traitor, presumes 
to sit in judgment on ray Republicanism! Had 
he not " better tarry at Jericho till his beard is 
grown ?" 

It is charged against me that I combined to de- 
feat the election of Governor Hart by conspiring 
with others to alter certain returns of the elec- 
tion. This charge I pronounce false in every 
feature. It is further alleged in proof of such 
conspiracy that I wrote a letter to he sheriff of 
Gadsden, in which I begged that officer to keep 
the " secret" of the sheriff of Leon County, who, 
it was also said, had been dispatched to Gadsden 
to procure the destruction of the records of the 
election. The charge was very explicit, and it 
showed that I was either criminally treacherous 
and base, or the accusation a most foul libel. — 
Here are the words of the Sentinel : 

" Just after the election of Conover to the IT. S. 
Senate, the Sheriff of Gadsden received a letter 
from S. B. Conover requesting him to keep the 
accredited agent's secret — that he (the Sheriff of 
Gadsden) did not know how soon ' a ripe persim- 
mon would fall in his mouth.' " — Oct. 11. 

And again, when the charge was denied and 
another name given as the author of the letter 
ascribed to me, the accusation was reiterated by 
the same paper as follows : 

" The statement was founded on evidence that 
cannot be so easily set aside. It was not the 
offspring of a crochett}' brain, or the idle gossip 
of the street, but the testimony of a reliable man,, 
and we shall take" occasion hereafter to follow it 
up that the people may know the infamous con- 
spirators." — Oct. 18. 

This whole story, fellow -citizens, is a complete 
fabrication from beginning to end, so far as it 
relates to me. It is a manufactured falsehood, 
in perfect keeping with the multitude of other 
slanders which have been evolved by the same 
seething brain. As soon as I was apprised of the 
accusation, I addressed a letter to the Sheriff of 
Gadsden, calling his attention to the charge, and 
requesting an immediate confirmation or dis- 
proval of the statement. He answered promptly, 



but the letter did not come to hand. I telegraph- 
ed him on the 4th inst., and the next day re- 
ceived the following reply : 

QuiNCY, Fla., Nov. 4, 1873. 
Hon. S. B. Conover, 

Dear Sir : — Your letter of 31st ult., relative to a 
certain article which appeared in the Tallahas- 
see Sentinel some two weeks ago, was received 
by me on Saturday last, the 1st inst, and duly 
answered on Sunday, the 3d inst., mailed in the 
Quincy post oflice the same day at 10 A. M., 
and I have the assurance of the Acting Post 
Master here that it was forwarded on Monday, 
and of which I have retained a copy, but not 
having it before me, give you the substance. 

As regards the article referred to, I am in no 
way responsible — it was published without my 
knowledge or consent. I do not know Avho 
wrote it, or anything about it. As regards your- 
self, I can safely say that I have never in my life 
received a letter from you, (except the one above 
referred to,) or have I ever had any conversation 
with you on politics or any other subject, and 
that to the best of my knowledge, recollection 
and belief the sum total of all communications 
that I have ever had the honor of having with 
or from you is covered by a formal introduction, 
a shake cf hands, and " good evening." 

I did once in May, 1873, if I am not mistaken 
in the date, receive a letter from another M. C, 
in response to a strictly business letter having 
no reference to politics, or public affairs, in which 
the expression " ripe persimmon," etc., occurs. 
Said letter is now in my possession, and knowing 
the writer would not object, is subject to the 
inspection of any person who has more time to 
devote to the private affairs of others than to at- 
tend to their owp, 

I make this statement as in justice due, and 
would have done so before, but absence from the 
county and illness has prevented. 
I have the honor to remain, 

Your very obedient serv't, 

John P. Jordan, 
Sheriff Gadsden Co. 

I think, fellow-citizens, that this answer effec- 
tualty disposes of that matter. It is not only a 
clear vindication of myself, but it shows the 
despicable character of the man who degrades 
and disgraces the columns of the newspaper 
press by making them the medium for venting 
the spleen and malice of his vindictive nature. 

Further proof of my political hypocrisy is 
sought to be found in that I tried to procure the 
late candidate of the conservatives for Governor, 
Hon. W. D. Bloxham, to be appointed Surveyor- 
General. I plead guilty to the fact of trying to 
have the appointment of that gentleman made, 
and I am happy to say that the whole delegation, 
with one exception, agreed with me in recom- 
mending it as one eminently fit and proper. Tint 



the President was not deceivecl. He was inform- 
ed as to who Mr. Bloxham was, and sort his 
name to the Senate with full knowledge of his 
political and personal antecedents and c'.iaracter. 
What the department wanted in the ofiBce was 
a competent officer, and the question was not as 
to his politics, but, " Is he honest, is he capable?" 
No one acquainted with Captain Bloxham will 
doubt that he fully answered the requirements, 
and I happen to know that the course of the 
delegation in the matter met with the approval 
of the proper authorities. I wish to say here 
that the recommendation of Mr. B. was made 
without his knowledge or consent. It was sim- 
ply a recognition of his fitness lor the position, 
and I offer it as proof that a Republican Presi- 
dent and Republican Congressmen can be liberal 
even to their political opponents. 

THE ALLEGED BALANCES. 

And now, fellow-citizens, I come to the more 
serious charges against me — charges which relate 
to my integrity as a man, and which it was 
hoped by my enemies would crush and annihi- 
late me. You have not forgotten the use which 
was made of a statement furnished by the State 
Treasurer of balances appearing on his books as 
due by me to the School Fund and on general 
account. That the statement was obtained in 
the first instance for no good end, is proved by 
the infamous use finally made of it. I do not 
complain that the statement Was obtained; but 
what I do object to is the grossly unjust and 
scandalously false use to which it was subjected. 
Herein was the double distilled villainy of the 
proceeding. It w"as not enough to show that 
there was an apparent balance against me on the 
books, which, however, did not exist in fact, but 
my enemies made the circumstance the occasion 
for hounding me as though I was the veriest of 
scoundrels. Epithets of defaulter, embezzler, rob- 
ber, were hurled at me with venomous vehemence. 
Even after explanation made by a friend, which 
ought to have satisfied any reasonable amount 
of emnity, there was a marvellous persistence in 
slander and vituperation, until it became appar- 
ent that the attack in the outset was no mere 
mistake, resulting from erroneous information, 
but was a pre-concerted plot to injure and defame 
me, deliberately planned and attempted to be 
executed with all the vindictiveuess peculiar to 
conspirators and assassins. It is hardly neces- 
sary to repeat the " statement " of which so per- 



verted a use has been made, and yet it is per- 
haps proper that I should refer to it. 

There was represented in it as due by me to 
the State on general account a balance of $1,- 
903.70. Against this I hold legitimate offsets 
in amount sufficient to' cover it, the chief item 
of which consists in an order on the Contingent 
Fund, signed by the late Governor. I paid this 
money out by the order of the Governor for 
postage, express charges on revenue collected 
and sent to the Treasury, &c., and am justly en- 
titled to a credit therefor. It should have been 
paid from the Contingent Fund of 1872, so that 
the warrant of the Comptroller could have gone 
to my credit on the books of the Treasury before 
I left the office ; but every dollar of the Contin- 
gent Fund for that year had been exhausted and 
the claim could not in consequence be audited. 
It was afterwards presented to the present Comp- 
troller, and he declined to audit it for the reason 
that there was no appropriation out of which it 
could be paid. Here the matter stands, and I 
propose to leave it in this condition until the 
Legislature meets, when I have not the slightest 
reason to doubt that justice will be done me. — 
The balance against me in this particular is only 
in form — it is not an actual balance. I received 
the money and paid it out legitimately on proper 
authority, the State thus receiving the full bene- 
fit of it, and by no principle of justice can I he 
required or expected to pay it a second time. — 
The charge is as preposterous as it is false that 
I am a defaulter because I have not done so, 
and only shows the extremity to which my ene- 
mies are driven when they try to make it so ap- 
pear. 

There was also represented in the statement 
referred to as due by me to the School Fund a 
balance of $3,139.63. I wish to state here that 
the money received on this account was from 
the sale of school lands, and was paid into the 
Treasury, not in currency, as was falsely and 
ignorantly stated by the Sentinel in its first attack 
on me, but in scrip. I had no control over the 
sale of lands or the kind of funds for which they 
were sold. My business as Treasurer was to re- 
ceive what was paid me, and to pay it out on 
the order of the Board of Public Instruction, 
who alone have control of the moneys belonging 
to the Fund. The Treasurer is simply a receiv- 
ing and disbursing officer, and is responsible in 
no way except for the custody of the funds 
coming to his hands. The balance appearing 



i 



against me on this account was offset by vouch- 
ers paid by me by order of the Board, and by 
Comptroller's warrants and other funds, and 
there was a small sum actually due to me, for 
the vouchers more than covcnxl the balance by 
eighty-six cents, so that in lieu of my being in 
debt to this fund, it was in debt to me. One of 
these vouchers, amounting to $2,786.00, was a 
receipt for money paid to Mr. C. H. Walton, of 
the Sentinel. A singular feature connected willi 
the war on me is the fiict that while I was be- 
ing charged with robbing " the poor children " 
of their money, this man Walton, who permits 
the columns of his paper to be prostituted to my 
injury, had drawn and pocketed nearly the 
■whole of the money I was charged with steal- 
ing! Wasn't that cool? It is said that I was 
" frolicing at Long Branch " with this money. — 
It is true I went to Long Branch last summer to 
see the President on business of the State in 
which you were ail interested, and was there 
just two days ; but I could not liave done much 
" frolicing " on " the poor cliildren's mouey," 
when another person (C. H. Walton) had it. It 
was simply a mistake in the person of the frolic- 
er; for if there was any "frolicing" done, it 
must have been by the man who had the money 
in his pocket. But why, if I robbed " the poor 
children" for Walton's benefit, was not the 
money returned to the Treasury ? If I was a 
robber, was he not a partake in the theft, and 
when the discovery was made, ought he not, as 
an honest man, to have made haste to repair the 
wrong to "the poor children?" The Sentinel 
was tearfully pathetic over the sufferings of "the 
poor children " by my alleged misconduct, 
but never once did its editors put their hands 
into their pockets and make restitution. That 
is not their style ; their motto is, as shown by 
the outrageous bill presented against the Fund 
and the tight grip kept on the money, " Get all 
you can and keep all you get." But, fellow- 
citizens, there was no robbery in the matter, ex- 
cept it was in the enormous charge made by the 
Sentinel for a small amount of work, for which, 
however, I was not responsible. The bill was 
first presented to the Comptroller in July, 1873, 
if am not mistaken, who refused to audit it on 
the ground that the Comptroller had no control 
over the School Fund ; that all accounts against 
that Fund should be presented to the Board of 
Public Instruction, and that it was upon their 
order and not on a Comptroller's warrant that 



moneys belonging to the Fund were to be paid 
by the Treasurer. To satisfy Mr. Walton, the 
opinion of the Acting Attorney General, C. P. 
Cooper, Esq., was taken, and he sustained the 
Comptroller. The account then went before 
the Board, who approved and ordered it jiaid, 
and it was paid by me as Treasurer of the Board 
— not as Treasurer of the State. I present a 
copy of the account with the order of its pay- 
ment endorsed thereon, as follows : 

WHERE " THE POOU CHILDREN'S MONEY" WENT. 

Tallahassee, Fla., Oct. 1, 1873. 
State of Florida, Com'r of Immigration, 

To the Tallahassee Sentinel, Dr. 
June 1, 1873. To adv'g " Commissioner's 

Tax Sale," 199 sqs.— 140— 200— 219— $2,786.00 
Received payment, 
(Signed) Chas. H. Walton. 

This bill is approved, and Treasurer Conover is 
requested to pay the same from Scrip in his hands 
belonging to the School Fund. 

(Siiined) J. S. Adams, 

C'ommissi07ier of Lands and Immigration. 
Approved. 

(Signed) Jonathan C. Gibbs, 

Sea'etary of State. 
Approved. 

(Signed) Charles Beecher, 

Sup^t Public Instruction. 

There were other vouchers which it is not 
necessary that I should weary you with 
reading. They are mentioned in a late letter 
from Col. Beard, formerly chief clerk in the 
Comptroller's office, addressed to the editors of 
the Sentinel in reply to their first attack, in 
which letter this whole matter was gone over, to 
the entire satisfaction, I believe, of this communi- 
ty, as well as the public at large. The letter was 
as follows : 

COL. beard's explanatory letter. 

Tallahassee, Sept. 22, 1873. 
To the Editors of the TallahoMee Sentinel: 

Gentlemen — "A reply to John Proctor" — 
an editorial in your issue of the 20th inst. — does 
gross injustice to Dr. S. B. Conover as late Treasu- 
rer of this State, and I avail myself of the cour- 
tesy tendered me in the use of your columns to 
show you and the public the errors into which 
you have been misled. I will ask that the 
"Floridian" publish this, as I am anxious that 
the refutal of the grave charges against Dr. Con- 
over shall go before the public as soon as possible. 

It is my duty as well as pleasure to make this 
communication, for the reason that as early as 
the 17th of January last. Dr. Conover requested 
me to take charge of the matter of turning over 
his official papers, funds, &c., to his successor, 
and hence the facts here treated of are within 
my own knowledge. 



% 



In the article above alluded to appears a .com- 
munication addressed by Treasurer Ft«(»^r to 
Gov. Stearns, giving a statement of balauci s due 
by ex-Treasurer Conover as follows : 

"Balance due from late Treasurer $1.;imI-'. 7i>" 

To account for thi^ balance there was 
an abstract, with vouchers accom- 
panying each item, of a bill paid by 
Treasurer Conover by order of Gov. 
Eeed out of the Contingent Fund, 
amounting to $I.879.1« 

One Uncurrent National Currency bill lo.oo 

Tallahassee Railroad bills ti.oo 

Two pieces of Jury & witness Scrip, 
which, upon examination, proved 
to be County Scrip, (one of a wit- 
ness in Alachua county $7.3o, and 
one of Columbia county $1.00) S.35— 1.9u;! M 

Due by Treasurer 19 

"Balance due School Fund August 4 $3.l3ti'i3' 

This balance was accounted for as follows : 

An account of the Tnllahassee Sentinel for ad- 
-t; vCTtifeing Commissioner's Sale of School 

'. land, which account had been, approved by 
Board of Public Instruction (the only power 
undt r the law having authority o\ er this 
Fund) and by them ordered to be paid by 
Vonover as Treasurer of said Board or Fund 'J.Tst; UO 

One Comptroller's Certificate,, $24.80, with ac- 
crued interest, issued under act of 5th Janua- 
ry, 1859 41 :a 

An account approved by the Commissioner of 
Schools and paid by Treasurer Conover in the 
distribution of School Money to Clay county -M uo 

A Draft of J. W. Pearson, paid into the Treasu- 
ry by the Register of Public Lands I's uO 

$y.07;! ."i-t 

For these vouchers, amounting to $8,0T:J.54, L 
hold for Treasui'er Conover the following " mem 
orandum receipt " — (the interest is omitted in the 
receipt on Comptroller's Certificate uienlioued 
above :) 

Received of S. B. Conover, by W. K. Beard, 
Four Papers belonging to School Fund, described 
as follows : 

Comptroller's Certificate, dated Oct. 25, 1859, 
for $24.80. 

Receipt of Hugh A Corley, Register, to C. H. 
Austin, for draft, $28. 

Receipt of D. L. Branning, Treasurer Board of 
Public Instruction Clay Co., for $218.00 for 
stumpage of timber, &c. 

Bdl of Tallahassee Sentinel for advertising- 
School Lands, amounting to $2786.00, receipted 
by C. H. Walton. 

C. H. Foster, Treasurer Fia. 

Tallahassee, May 17, 1873. 

Treasurer Foster declined to give a formal re- 
ceipt for these items, though he admitted that 
they were valid assets in Treasurer Con(»ver's 
hands for the balance due this Fund, tLo two 
material amounts, $2,786.00 and $218.00, having 
been paid by Conover by the order of the only 
authority known to the law over the Fund. 

But these vouchers still left a balance due by 
Conover of $66.09. For this balance there were 
two Comptroller's Warrants, one isetied \v Capt. 
M. Martin, for $48.00, and by bira endovied to 



J. C. Lee, of Sumter County, and one for $18.95 
issued to D. L. Campbell, of Walton county. 
These Warrants Treasurer Foster refused, (very 
properly,) to receipt for, because not properly en- 
dorsed. On the 17tli of May I sent these War- 
rants by registered letter to the respective par- 
ties for their endorsement and did not get them 
back for some time. In fact, the one sent Mr. 
Campbell was handed me only to-day by Mr. 
Mcintosh in the Comptroller's office. Tliese War- 
rants aggregate $66.95, showing a balance of 86 
cents due Dr. Conover. 

As regards the bill paid by Dr. Conover of 
$1,879.16 out of the Contingent Fund, I will say, 
I applied to Comptroller Cowgill to audit this 
account, and he replied that he would do so but 
that the Legislature had not contemplated this 
sum in the appropriation for the contingent ex- 
penses of the State for the current year, and that 
he did not feel justified in the risk of exhausting 
the appropriation, not knowing what pressing 
demands might arise before the Assembly met 
again.* 

You dwell upon the fact that " nearly five 
months" had elapsed before Treasurer Conover 
made the payments of $3,839.42, General Tax 
money, and $1,498.37 of School money, &c. I 
doubt not that Treasurer Foster will unite with 
me in exculpating ex-Treasurer Conover from 
all blame for this delay, as the funds thus turned 
over were in the safe at the time he took posses- 
sion and there remained, he havii.g one key and 
I the other of the safe until the f.mds were for- 
mally receipted for. The delay arose partly from 
the Treasurer being otherwise necessarily em- 
ployed, and from the fact of my being also enga- 
ged on mj^ plantation. At all events, ex-Treas- 
urer Conover had no h.aud in this delay, as the 
funds might as well have been turned over the 
day he employed me to act for him, so far as he 
was concerned. 

I presume Mr. Foster, in his communication to 
>he Governor, simply intended to show what 
funds he had formally receipted for and was ac- 
countable as Treasurer for, and not really to 
«how the actual state of Dr. Conover's account 
with the Treasury, as I will not believe that he 
would have permitted so great an injustice to his 
predecessor as has been done him in the edito- 
rial alluded to, when a few lines in explanation 
would have set the whole matter at rest. In fact, 
Mr. Foster had stated to me in the Comptroller's 
olDce, as late as the 29th of July, that Treasurer 
Conover had valid vouchers to account for the 
balances shown by him to be due, both on gen- 
eral account and to the School Fund. 
I am. Gentlemen, 

Very respectfully, 

W. K. Beard. 

I think I have now shown that so far as my 
alleged indebtedness to the State on general ac- 

* In a letter since published. Comptroller Cow- 
gill says that the only reason why he did not 
audit the account was because there " was no 
appropriation legally applicable to its payment." 



(-ouni stlid for moueys bclongiug to the School 
Fund is coucerued, all attacks made upon me 
in connection therewith are and were malicious- 
ly false, and my accusers stand branded before 
the people of the State as moral perjurers who 
have lent themselves to the circulation of infa- 
mous slanders for the sole purpose of doing me 
personal injury. 

THE YOUMAN's matter. 

When I returned to the State last summer, I 
was for the first time apprised of the fact that a 
registered letter from a tax-collectoi of Manatee 
county, containing a thousand dollars in State 
scrip, had been received and receipted for in my 
name, but had not been entered on the Treasu- 
rer's book. This was a matter which I knew 
nothing about. I never saw the receipt and had 
no knowledge of the transaction, but my respon- 
sibility for the money was just the same as if I 
had known all about it. As soon as informed of 
it, however, I admitted my liability and my 
readiness to settle it at any time. I can only 
account for the irregularity from the press of 
other engagements. My enemies charge that 
I intended to " r- " the State, but in this chari- 
table judgment they only reflect their own im- 
age. They probably know what they would 
have done under like circumstances, and readily 
conclude that others are as thievishly inclined as 
themselves. 

THE BANNERMAN DEPOSIT. 

Another gross attack on me has grown out of 
a deposit, made in December, 1871, by IMr. J. C. 
Bannenuan, tax collector for Jackson county, 
amounting to $1,478. This was a very simple 
transaction, fellow-citizens, but it has been made 
the occasion of iterated and reiterated falsehood, 
uttered with such a degree of confident assur- 
ance as to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that 
with some men the art of fabrication has been 
carefully studied and is fully understood. 

There are two kinds of falsehood : one is the 
lie direct, and the other the lie indirect. In this 
instance there has been no beating about the 
bush, but we have both kinds in all their native 
fullness and transcendent nakedness. I have 
been charged with a design to embezzle this 
money, but I think I shall show, fellow-citizens, 
that the allegation is only the emanation of an 
intellect disordered by " sour malignancy " and 
"bilious acidity," and, as a natural consequence, 



incapable of apprehending the truth, much less 
of ut'eriug it. 

The Sentinel, after referring to a balance due 
by me i'or month of January last, adds : 

" Till- $1,478 received from Collector Banner- 
man was not included in this amount, or any 
mentiru made of it, neither does it appear upotji 
the bcntks of the Treasurer's office, notwithstand- 
ing th<; fact that the late Treasurer had receipted 
for tbf same as Treasurer, and stipulated in said 
receipt to credit the amount on Bannerman's ac- 
count for tases, as far back as the year 1870." 

It is evident from what is here said that the 
person who uttered this language either knew 
nothing of the character of the receipt given to 
Mr. Bauuerman, or knowing what was specified 
therein, he has wilfully and purposely misrepre- 
sented it. He can impale himself on either horn 
of the dilemma. The scrip was not a payment 
by Bannenuan on his account as Tax Collector, 
but was simply placed on deposit, to be passed to 
his credit only when he completed arrangements 
with the (Comptroller to settle his accounts for 
the year 1870. But to place the matter beyond 
cavil I htjre give the receipt itself : 

(COPY.) 

Tallahassee, Dec. 14, 187L 
Received ot J. C. Bannerman, Tax Collector 
of Jackson county, $1,478 in tax-paying scrip, to 
hold on deposit until he completes arrangements 
to settle his accounts for the year 1870. 

(Signed) 8. B. Conover, Treasurer, 
per Hamilton Jay. 

The Seivtimi alleges that I had " stipulated ict 
the said r«;oeipt to credit the amount on Banner- 
man's account for taxes as far back as 1870;" 
whereas the receipt is dated in December, 1871^ 
and the stipulation was that the scrip was to be 
held on deposit until he had completed certain 
arrangements with the Comptroller, which ar- 
rangements, however, were never completed, 
foir he died soon after. I had no authority what- 
ever to credit Mr. Bannerman's account until he 
had settled with the Comptroller and directed' 
me to do s< >. It was his money and not the State's, 
and the deposit was liable to be withdrawn at 
any moment. I did not conceal the fact that I 
had the srrip. It is not usual for persons to at- 
tempt to conceal a matter for which they have 
given a written obligation, and I have not yet 
sunk so low, although the Sentinel will have it 
otherwise, as to try to rob an estate, when the 
very attempt to do so would have brought ruiu 
and degrudattion upon me. Ihning the lour yeafs 



and a half I was Treasurer, over a million and a 
quarter of the State's money passed through my 
hands, and the most my enemies can say, and 
they have to perpetrate folsehood to say even 
that, five or six thousand dollars is the gross sum 
their inventive malice charges me witli " embez- 
zling." Three different committees of the Legis- 
lature examined my accounts, and not one of 
them whispered a word against my integrity. — 
The last committee had on it a majority who 
were not partial to me, and had there been any- 
thing wrong they would have been very apt to 
have discovered it. In the face of insinuations 
covertly bruited by bitter foes, they reported 
that they found no evidence of fraud. I take no 
special credit to myself for discharging my duties 
honestly. I expected to do so when I took charge 
of the office, and it is a source of self-gratification 
that neither the State nor anybody connected 
with the State has been defrauded of one cent 
through my misconduct. So far from the public 
moneys having been lost through my want of 
integrity, I say to you here to-day, that I saved 
the Treasury from being plundered of thousands 
of dollars. On one occasion I was importuned 
to place fifty thousand dollars in the liands of 
irresponsible partieSj of moneys which had been 
paid into the Treasury, to be diverted to unai- 
thorized purposes. In other words, I was asked, 
without any appropriation having been made 
and without the slightest autbority of law, to 
secretly and clandestinely reissue $50,000 in State 
scrip. This proposal was gravely made, and my 
compliance as gravely insisted on, in the presence 
of some of the same men who are assailing me 
to day with bitter animosity on the ground of a 
want of personal integrity. Tiiis is but one in 
stance out of many in which I would not lend 
myself to schemes of plunder. Had 1 been the 
base Judean my enemies represent, I might 
have abused the trust confided to my keeping in 
the grossest manner, but I preferred to retain tlie 
approbation of my own conscience rather than 
be a partaker in the fruits of robbery of a tax- 
ridden people. 

As to the Bannerman dept sit, the fact that the 
money was in my hands Was well known to his 
bondsmen, who alone wofe interested in its safety. 
These gentlemen hav^ kindly furnished me a 
letter which I take pleasure in reading, wherein 
they not only refute the BentineVs accusations, 
but take occasion to express their sense of the 
moral turpitude of my accusers : 



AVHAT THE BOKUSMEN SAY. 

Tallahassee, Fla., Nov. 5th, 18t3. 
Hoisr. S. B. CoNovER : 

Sir — We have read the attacks on you in the 
Sentinel ol this city, in connection with the de- 
posit made by J. C. Bannerman, late Tax Col- 
lector of Jackson county, amounting to fourteen 
hundred and seventy-eight dollars, in which that 
paper charges you with intention to defraud 
the estate of that amount, and that you had 
kept the matter concealed Until it was exposed 
by that paper. "We wish to say in justice to 
you, that the fact of the deposit being in your 
hands was never concealed by you from us, and 
your readiness to pay it over at any time was 
known to us. Having known you as Treasu- 
rer for the last four years or more, and con- 
fiding in your integrity, we have never doubted 
that the funds would be turned over whenever 
required, but m fact, so far as we know, no de- 
maud or request was ever made for them, as we 
preferred to allow them to remain in your pos- 
session until needed in settlement of the late Mr. 
Baunerman's accounts. 

Permit us to add that we regard these attacks 
of the Seutiml as unwarranted, unjust and out- 
rageous — born of malice and fraught with no 
good intention. C. W. BannermaJt, 

John Q. Cromartie, 
Bondsmen for J. C. Bannerman. 

I might stop with this explicit vindication of 
myself from the gross wrong sought to be done 
ine in coiinecliou with this matter, but I cannot 
refrain *' ^m remarking on the striking fact that 
none but the Sentiroel SLud its associates in villifi- 
cation have felt any alarm or concern about the 
safety of the deposit. Neither the Bannerman 
lieiis nor the Bannerman bondsmen, as their own 
siatemeni shows, were under the least uneasiness. 
It was onlj^ iny enemies v/ho have been borrow- 
ing ti-ouble. But their anxiety, fellow citizens, 
was simulated. It was all sham. There was 
nothing real about it, except in the bitterness 
with which they assailed me. In this their mal- 
ice has shone with vindictive conspicuousness. — 
Had I been the wretch their animosity repre- 
sents me to he, they would have rejoiced at my 
disgrace. As it is, with the fact of their dis- 
comfiture and of my vindication so clearly es- 
tablished, they can reflect upon the folly and 
wickedness of engaging in a personal warfare on 
iusufBcent grounds. Falsehood may travel in 
" seven league boots," but Truth, though it halt 
b^ the way, is sure to win the race in the end. I 
will not advise my traducers to follow the exam- 
ple of Judas and go hang themselves, and thus 
rid the party and the State of a set of noisome 
pfests as voracious as the locusts of Egypt, but I 



9 



will suggest that they can improve their manners 
by showing less of their vices and more of their 
virtues, it indeed they have any virtues. 

I Inive thus, fellow-citizens, gone over the ac- 
cusations against nie, and at greater length than 
I intended in the outset. Some may perhaps 
think tiiat I have been unnecessarily harsh in 
many of the expressions employed; but I pray 
them to consider the provocation. For weeks I 
have been the object of the most unsparing per- 
sonal abuse, in which the vocabulary of billings- 
gate has been exliausted. 1 did not begin this 
war. By no act of mine has a wound been in- 
flicted or a feeling ruffled. Knowing well the 
character of these would-be leaders of the Re- 
publican party, and appreciating the importance 
of harmony in its ranks, I have carefully avoided 
every act likely to excite discord and strife. But 
the enemies of Peace would have it otherwise^ 
and what I have this day felt constrained to say 
has been in self defence raiher tiian from a desire 
to foment ill feeling. A little must be pardoned 
to the infirmities of human nature, and I should 
consider myself unworthy of respect if I did not 
give back l)low for blow. " Beware of entrance 
to a quarrel," was the advice of a father to his 
son ; " but, being in, bear'l, thai the opposer m^iy 
beware of thee." 

CONCLUSION. 

And now, fellow-citizens, let me dismiss this 
unpleasant subject and pass to others more agree 
able. I congratulate the people of the State on 
the improved feeling existmg in all sections. My 
information from intelligent gentlemen of all par- 
ties is that prejudices are giving way before a 
more enlarged view of the situation. Florida 
has many elements for a bright and prosjierous 
future, and this future will be all the lietier and 
sooner secured if there is real, hearty good wdl 
among all classes of the people. Prejudice, jeal- 
ousy and distrust are enemies to progress, and 



where interests are identical, as they are with as, 
the absence of mutual confidence and sympathy 
retards rather than promotes advancement. — 
The " logic of events" has forever fixed the 
riii^hts of the colored people, and he is a most 
unwise man who frets himself away in a vain 
endeavor to undo what is beyond recall. These 
rights are not only established by irrepealable law, 
but are daily being recognized in appointments 
to responsible positions under the government. 
Thus we have at last become " one people," 
with equal privileges, and each for himself, how- 
ever humble and whatever his color, is at liberty 
to strive for the rewards denied to none. Politi- 
cally on the same level, our mutual welfare de- 
mands cordial co-operation as the only certain 
ineans of securing the general good. In my 
jiosition as Senator, it shall be my earnest en- 
deavor to encourage harmonious feeling among 
the people. There has been enough of bitterness 
and strife. We may differ in politics and religion, 
but what a world this would be if every differ- 
ence in opinion were to be visited with acrimony 
and distrust! As for myself, I had rather labor 
for conciliation than be the means, by word 
or ileed, of introducing strife and confusion 
where there sliouM be mutual forliearance and 
good will. 

Situated as Florida is, I feel morally convin- 
ced that her highest interests will be consulted 
by all her people, no matter what may have 
been theirpoliiical views, giving to the AdminiS' 
tration a united support. President Grant has 
no wish except for the prosperity of the State. — 
If that Govermnent is best which is fill least, I 
am sure if would ai-atify the lietd of the Ameri- 
can People if such a state of public sentiment 
could be brouirht about as that the existence of 
irovernment would onlv be known from the 
pfoteciion it gives and the blessings it secures to 
all. 



At the conclusion of the Senator's speech, liie chairman of the meetiuL-, f'le Rev. C. H. Pearce, 
State Senator from the Eighlli District, ofxered the following resolutions, which were unanimously 
adopted : — 

Whereas, Senator Conover has been grossly assailed, and his character defamed by a certain 
newspaper in this city ; Therefore Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that he has thorough- 
ly vindicated himself, and that we pledge him our hearty co-operation and support. 

Resolved further, That we respicttully request the Senator to furnish us with a copy of his 
speech for publication, an>l that we publish fifteen hundred copies in pamphlet form. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 498 971 5 # 



